Harry Aitken

About/Bio

Harry Aitken is an international legal adviser at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He previously worked as Judge James Crawford’s Judicial Fellow at the International Court of Justice and in private practice at MinterEllison. He has an LLM from the University of Cambridge and a BA and LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University. The views expressed in Harry’s contributions to this blog are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any institution with which he is or has been affiliated.

Recently Published

The pandemic, UN cyber negotiations and international law and norms

Bright winter sunlight flooded the non-descript conference room in the Palais des Nations, as delegates of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on cyber took their seats. It was February 2020, and the 2-year multilateral process was still in its early days, with negotiations scheduled over the course of the next 18 months. While delegations did not…

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The Duties of a Government International Legal Adviser

Although we may not like to be reminded of it, international lawyers start out as domestic lawyers. When being admitted to practice in a particular jurisdiction, we are taught that lawyers owe duties not only to clients, but also to domestic courts and the interests of justice (‘institutional duties’). These institutional duties are hierarchically superior: faced with a…

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